The Congress won this seat three times running, in 1989, 1991 and 1996. However, its percentage of votes fell from 56.1 at the height of the anti-Rajiv wave in 1989, to just 39.62 % two years ago. At that time, it was T P Bhanu Raj of the CPI-M who came second, but more significant was the BJP winning 12.29 % of the votes. Its partner this time, the TDP-LP, took away 15.28 % of the votes.